Guest Op-ed City Administration Took Action on Wellness Center

For some time now, there has
been a great deal of repeated false information publicized about the Health and
Wellness Center. False claims of a
settlement, to exaggerated issues portrayed to make it appear that there is a
constant problem at the Wellness Center.
For some reason, Mr. McLaughlin, you are choosing to align yourself with
the editor and owners of the Leader Herald in helping to perpetuate falsehoods
and typical employment matters beyond their relevance. By these actions, you are damaging this city.

You must know these stories
are overblown, and yet you sit here and expect answers beyond the scope of your
function as if you have a right to smear the good people working every day to
enhance this City, OUR City! That
newsletter that pretends to be a newspaper only tries to tear down this
administration and the Encore project: A project that will bring the City great
tax revenue, jobs, and environmental cleanup for Everett and the surrounding
area. And you want to do the paper’s
dirty work to what end? To stop the
progress.

Have you bought in,
hook-line-and-sinker, to the false stories about a Health and the Wellness
Center that you have never even visited for yourself? The questions you have proposed are
repetitive and seek information beyond your function as a legislator so you can
play political games. You use words like
“unsafe” and “negative” to describe it.
Nothing can be further from the truth…
I AM HERE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS FOR MY ADMINISTRATION, AND TO DEFEND
THIS CITY FROM THIS ATTACK. AS TO YOUR
QUESTIONS…

The Health and Wellness
Center is a constituent heavy service that many municipalities don’t have. We embarked on this with the residents in
mind, to offer them a place to move, exercise, and have a sense of community.
We offer classes, meals, training, and even daycare where residents trust us
with their children.

We get very little in the
way of negative feedback. From seniors to students, they all enjoy this
facility and its staff. In fact, if the
positive and successful stories were offered up as much as the inflated
negative ones, then I bet even you would have a different view, never being
there to see for yourself.

You mention numerous
complaints the residents have made to you. As an elected official of the city,
did you report these to anyone that can help, or did you direct them to someone
with knowledge in an attempt to help them?
Were you keeping these complaints to yourself for some reason? As a member of the Council, how do you think
it helps this City by hoarding complaints for political purposes, if they even
exist?

Instead, you talk about
broken trust. You contribute to that by
letting complaints die with you. By not
seeking to assist in the solution, but instead seeking to damage the reputation
of this fine Center. Have you gone in and
witnessed the joy in the kid’s activities, or the community getting together? Maybe you should, so you know what you are
talking about…

By not directing complaints
to the proper people, you are just creating a false sense that there is a
problem where there is not, or counseling people on matters you are not trained
to that is creating broken trust and frankly poor leadership.

You talk about a breakdown
in leadership. Have you seen the daily
classes taking place on the state-of-the-art equipment, equipment that is
maintained very well? Equipment that was
purchased by procurement after several bids, from the lowest bidder, who
installed the equipment themselves. Have
you seen the expertise of the teachers in action, and the variety of class
offerings? You ask for information on
the staff. Go up and see for yourself
the fine job they do.

Further, to qualify the
Center as “negative” and “unsafe” does a disservice to our city. To drag this into the newspaper over and over
does no good, especially to the real people that are collateral damage to you. To exaggerate these issues and repeat them
over and over is propaganda. To make a
situation bigger than it is, is irresponsible. This is what you are
perpetuating. This is what you are
contributing.

Yes there have been some
complaints. My administration has been
in front of the council about this.
After that, the newspaper had to walk back their false story. Human
resources issues happen in the regular course of any business. We investigated
it thoroughly. We made the accommodations required. Any further pursuit would
be a private matter, and the information is protected until such time as a
determination was made.

With the volume of people we
serve, as well as number of staff, the number of these complaints is typical if
not low. And I assure you, all are addressed as soon as they are made known to
us. My administration does their job, and again, this is not your function.

Want a lawsuit? Personnel files are exempt under public
records law. Want to expose the city to
liability? Publish someone’s protected
information. Discussing current matters
can compromise the City. Potential
claimants have rights and they have a proper process. The City has a right to defend. Neither is your function, but all should be
kept confidential in accordance with the law until the matter is resolved. Freely discussing conjecture can only weaken
the city. It is our function to protect
privileged information and this City, and we will do so even if you paint it as
a negative.

As to your questions to Dr.
Omar Easy, Dr. Easy works on a daily basis assessing the operational needs of
all city departments. He makes
recommendations on a daily basis regarding a variety of issues. Attorney Lara Wehbe Ammouri has always been a
lawyer with access to personnel records.
All employees time is tracked with timesheets. This function is not yours. You are not
entitled to these matters and again, it is not your function.

As to the Center, Steve
Supino ran a gym for decades in the private sector. We asked him to create a plan for the
Wellness Center. Some employees were transfers from the Rec Center, and others
were hired via the application process, referrals and recommendations. I am the
appointing authority and made the staffing decisions. Nick has been the manager of the day to day
operations since he was hired in 2015.

AS to all the employees of
the center, every year, we go over the budget with the council, and we will
again this year. To the best of my
knowledge, they are:

– Nick Bertrone – Manager/
Trainer

– Kristin Fulton –
Recreation Coordinator

-George Wright – Recreation
Leader

– Karen Martinelli –
Administrative Assistant

-Sam Amado- Instructor

– Kahlea Brown- Instructor

– Michael Marchese-
Instructor

– Pablo Miranda- Instructor

– Yago Miranda- Instructor

– Natalaia Chay De Gonzalez-
Instructor

-David Fanni- Instructor

– Gina Matarazzo- Instructor

– Rosa Portillo- Instructor

– Christine Demetrio – Day
Care Center

– The City also hires
vendors to run classes.

To answer another of your
questions, The Managing staff was:

-Steve Supino has been the
Executive Director of Health and Human Service.

-Karen Avila was Director of health and wellness (not to be confused with the center).

-Fitzroy Bramble was previous manager.

-Nick Bertone is currently the manager.

The numbers at the center
are strong:

2016 – Approximately
$255,000 in revenue…

2017 – Approximately
$326,000

2018- Approximately $384,000

Membership by family Plan:

2015 – 1,398

2016 – 1,865

2017 – 2,268

2018 – 2,544

The Center keeps adding
enrollment and revenue, flying in the face of your mistrust nonsense.

Karen Avila was the director
of health and wellness, which is a distinction from the Health and Wellness
Center. I recently initiated a city-wide
check on licenses, to assure that none had lapsed. That is when we discovered Karen’s issue, She
resigned due to all of the publicity in the paper, and I accepted her
resignation. Karen was not required to
have the credentials she claimed to have to do her job, but she was educated in
the field, having a bachelor’s degree from Framingham State in food and
Nutrition. At no time would there have
been a negative effect as a result, and to say so is not responsible.

You’re criticizing the
initiative that produced this result and you’re calling out my Administration
for not taking action when that is exactly what I did. While we were taking appropriate action, you
received office gossip creating the impression that this issue is much larger
than it actually is.

The Center is safe and
prosperous, and a benefit to the residents.
While you are spreading false rumors, you do us all disservice.

Let me share with you some
accolades in the few short years the Center has been open:

•2015 A grant from the U.S.
Conference of mayors for promoting healthy weight in children. They stated our “winning program showcased
creativity and innovation of America’s Mayors, as well as health and wellness
in the community.